Ice-box



M. GONZALEZ'.

ICE BOX.

APPLICATION FILED MAY I6. IQIa.

1,367,693, Patented Feb. 8, 1921.

` 2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

I| IIIIIIIIIIIII M. GONZALEZ.

ICE BOX.

APPLICATION FILI-:D MAY I6, |918.

1,367,693. Patented Feb. 8, 1921.

ATTORNEYS i UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

MIGUEL GONZALEZ, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

ICE-BOX.

Application med May 16,

To aZZfwhom t may concern.'

Be it known that l, MIGUEL GONZALEZ, a citizen of Venezuela, residing in the city, county, and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Ice-Boxes, of which the followinw is a specification.

y invention relates to an article of household furniture to be connected with the city water main for use in treating potable waters and specifically relates to an ice-box designed to be coupled to a source of water supply for the purpose of chemically treating the water, settling the same and for providing a supply of cold drinking water at any desired temperature.

In some places, particularly in the tropical South American countries, the water supplied to the residents through the city water systems is not always potable and frequently the indiscriminate drinking of this water gives rise to unhealthy conditions. At present the water is allowed to settle, frequently with the addition of certain purifying chemicals, after which the treated Water is decanted and ice added to give it life. Iced-water is usually too cold for consumption in hot countries and has to be diluted with some unchilledwater usually an inconvenient and troublesome process.

The invention contemplates a simple form of apparatus for general house-hold use designed to provide a convenient means in which the water from the city mains may be received, treated, and withdrawn into the drinking glass for consumption at any desired temperature.

Broadly the invention contemplates providing an article of furniture for the purpose outlined and simulating somewhat in appearance the conventional form of ice-box and otherwise pleasing in appearance. The ice-box includes two major portions of `larger dimensions than is usual in known ice-box constructions; one of which portions is ldesigned to constitute a large settling tank for receiving and treating the water received directly from the city water system and the other major portion of which constitutes an ice-chamber designed to re- Specication of Letters Patent.

' -tion and combination of 1918. Serial No. 234,856.

ceive a large block of ice for chilling a portion of the treated water through the agency of a cooling coil. i

The ,invention has for its primary object the providing of an ice-box of the type described, 'which will handle the water to be treated economically even in large quantities and which will facilitate a sanitary handling of the water.

Another object of the invention is to provide a device of the character described in which simplicity of construction has been featured so that it can be marketed at a low cost and at the same time insure against leakage of both water and heat. Incidental to this desideratum it is proposed to utilize the stored water to take the place of part of the insulation usual in ice-box constructions thus resulting not only in a saving in cost of manufacture, but in considerably cooling the stored water in the water compartment.

Various other objects and advantages of the invention will be in part obvious from an inspection of the accompanying draw ings and in part will be more fully set forth in the following particular description of one form of apparatus embodying my invention, and the invention also consists in certain new and novel features of construcset forth and claimed.

Referring to the accompanying drawing:

Figure 1 is a perspective view showing a preferred embodiment of my invention;

Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view taken centrally through the device shown in Fig. 1 and parallel to the front thereof; and

Fig. 3 is a detailed view of a portion of the insert shown in the upper part of F ig. 2.

n the followingv description and in the claims, parts will be identified by specific names for convenience of expression but they are intended to be as generic in their application to similar parts as theV art will permit.

In the drawings therek is shown an up- Patented Feb. 8, 1921..

parts hereinafter standing wooden cabinet including a front to simulate ice-box ccnstructionsnow in gen-` eral use. The interior of the cabinet is divided into two major and two minor compartments, by four horizontally extending and vertically spaced partitions. The upper partition 15 constitutes the bottom of a water receiving, storing and settling compartment' 16, which is provided with al sheet metal lining 17. The lining 17 vis flush with the open top so as to provide compartment substantially co-extensive with the horizontal cross-section of the compart the form illustrated is simply a wooden' cover having a ydust tight fit in the opening at the top of the ice-box. This compartment is designed to be supplied with water from the city water system through an inlet pipe 19, the ilow through which isl controlled by a manually actuated valve 20, but it is understood that this showing is merely illus, trative and with a more expensive form of box the flow through the inlet may be controlled by any suitable form of float control device.

An upper middle partition 21 is. spaced below the upper partition 15 so as to provide an ice-storing-compartment 22 of relativelylar e capacity so that the ice is re placed in requently. The water compartment and the ice-compartment occupy the major portion of the ice-box and are usually constructed sol as to provide asupply of water and ice to'last several days or weeks without recharging.

While it is understood that this device is Yprimarily intended as a water treating ice- 'box and usually will be used for no other purposes, in the embodiment of the invention selected for illustration there is shown a general storing compartment 23 formed by a lower middle partition 24 spaced a relatively short distance beneath the middle upper partition 21. As it is intended that this box be opened infrequently this compartment 23 could obviously be used only for those articles which it is desired to keep over a longl period of time. In the commercial form of this device now marketed the compartment 23 is omitted.

The -refrigerating space included within the ice compartment 22 and the general stor ing compartmentv 23.is inclosed, with the exception of the top thereof, by insulating side and back walls 25. There is no necessity for insulating the top of the ice-compartan opening to the partment memes ment because the layer of water normally present on the bottom of the water compartment 16 will act as an insulation. i

A.' bottom partition 28 is spaced a relatively short distance below the partition 24 and coacts therewith to provide a drip-pan compartment 29. This drip-pan-compartment uis adapted to contain a large flat drip y, pan 30 designed to receive the ice water disthe exterior air, the ice box is not usually j opened until a fresh charge of ice is `to be inserted. A door 34, preferably of the single door insulating type to minimize the possibility door edge cracks are utilized to close the devices where a general storing compartof leakagewhere a plurality of` 'front of the ice-compartment and in those ment 23 is used, the single door is of such ,dimensions as to close both of these compartments. partment is rectangular 1n ing coil 35 is positioned on the bottom substantially covering the same. This coil is vformed of a layer of unbent vstraight tubes 36 extending parallel to each other and parallel to the front of the compartment and The bottom-27 of the ice-complan and a cool' the tubes are connected at opposite ends by means of U-tubes 37 in order to form the complete coil. As the top sides of the tubes are rounded, the coil acts to'form a sliding surface across which the ice may be slid laterally when inserted in through the openfiiont of the ice-box. An intake-pipe 38 depends from the water compartment, has' its upper end iush with the bottom of the comand its lower end leads into one end of the coil 35. The other end of the coil is connected to an upstanding discharge pipe 39 which leads above the plane of the coil practically to the water compartment bottom for a purpose hereinafter described.

The front of the ice box is provided with twofaucets, one of which 40 is connected.

by a branch pipe 41 with the intake pipe 38 at the upper portion of the ice chamber so as to drawwater from the water comfl partment before itis subjected to the chilling edect of ythe ice-compartment. The other faucet 42 constitutes the chilled water faucet and is connected to the end of the discharge pipe 39 by means of a branch pipe 43. For the purpose. of improving the esthetic appearance of the front of the icebox, the two faucets are positioned on the boX has bem suitably iced an same level and so disposed that water .can be drawn rst from one and then from the other, until the desired temperature of drink is obtained.

An open end tubular insert 44 is demountably positioned in the upper end of the inf take pipe 38 in order to position the intake end 45 thereofsome distance above the bottom of the water compartment. rf his elevating of the intake end provides a settling space in the bottom of the compartment 16 and causes the water withdrawn from this compartment to be taken from the upper layers of the settled water. ln those cases where a filtering is desired following the usual settling process, the tubular insert may be provided with some conventional form of filter herein indicated diagrammatically by a removable screen 46.

Positioned beneath each of the faucets 40 and 42 at the front of the cabinet is a drip cup 46 discharging into a drain tube 47 which leads the drip water into the housed drip pan 30. Practically all of the tubes 47 are confined within the cabinet thus improving the appearance of the front of the device and incidentally to protect these tubes against injury.

lin operation and assumin that the ice d sealed by the closing of the front door and that both the faucets 40 and 42 are closed, water is admitted into the waterv compartment by opening the valve 2O until the desired depth of water has accumulated in the tank. The valve is then shut off and any sediment in the water is allowed to fall to the bottom in some cases without any further treatment and otherwise subjected to the usual chemical or mechanical purifying treatment usual in the treating of potable waters. At the termination of this treatment, it is usual to open the faucet 42 in order to empty the coil of the initial charge of water. lt is understood that after the device has been in operation for awhile, there will always be clear water in the coil. In withdrawing a glass of water to form a drink, the operator will usually ytake from the faucet 40 a desired amount of unchilled water and will then fill up his glass with chilled water drawn from the faucet 42, thus obtaining the desired temperature of drink from the mixture of the two waters.

The water chamber will" necessitate frequent cleaning which is attained readily by opening the top, thus providing access to all the parts of the interior of the compartment. The faucet 42 is closed and the faucet 40 opened so as to drain all water from the compartment through the open faucet. As the water is lowered in the compartment, the tubular insert 44 is withdrawn and the bottom of the water compartment flushed out through the branch pipe 41 and faucet 40.

thus minimizing the tendency to splash or to forcibly discharge into the receiving receptacle when taking a portion ofwater from either of the faucets.

By means of a device of this character the water is handled economically and in suiiiciently large quantities so as to last over a relatively long period of time, it being understood that while a large volume of water is treated to the settling and purifying process only a small portion of the water in the coil is subjected to theo cooling operation at any one time. As efforts have been made to minimize the consumption of ice, due to external heat leakage, it will be appreciated that practically the only heat supplied to the ice compartment is in the water actually withdrawn from the cooling tubes and at the same time it is possible to withdraw the water directly from the water compartment practically without consumption of ice. As the expensive insulating packings are conned to the refrigerating space; the cost of construction has been reduced to a minimum and the inclosing of the drip pan tends to preserve the sanitary construction at the bottom of the ice-box.

Having thus described my invention, l claim: i

l. A receptacle divided into two compartments by a partition, of low insulating power, one of said compartments forming a water compartment, and the other an ice compartment, the ice compartment having its/walls other than the said partition of high insulating power, acooling coil in the ice compartment and connected to the water compartment by a tube, the top of which is viiush with the bottom of the water compartment, and a removable extension tube leading from the top 0f the said first mentioned tube, to a point considerably above the bottom, a valve controlled discharge forl the water adjacent the connection of the c oil to the water receptacle and a discharge at the other end of the coil. J

2. A receptacle divided into two compartments by a partition of low insulating power, l one of said compartments forming a water compartment, and the other an ice compartment, the ice compartment having its walls other than the said partition of high insulating power, a cooling coil in the ice compartment connected to the water compartment and forming a supplemental bottom to the icev compartment, a valve controlled discharge at a point adjacent the connection of j@ I Lecmcea the coil to the water receptacle and a disbeing :fed to thefxcoil from a point in the charge at the other end of the coil, the botwater tank considerably above the bottom 10 tom of said water receptacle being in a plane thereof.

substantially above that of the bottom of Signed at New York cit in thecounty of the ice receptacle and both of said discharges New York and State of ew York this 8th being considerably above the bottom of the day of May, A. D. 1918.

ice compartment and somewhat below the bottom of the water compartment, the water MIGUEL GONZALEZ. 

